8 Space Myths We Believe Because Of Movies

We all have a favourite space movie, cult classics such as the Alien series, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars are watched by millions over and over again. But do you really believe the plots and tech in these movies? Many of the scenes in these movies will have us believe many myths about space that are not accurate. Check out these 8 space myths we believe because of movies…

1. Sound in Space

Many space movies include explosions in fact pretty much all the space fight scenes have them. Of course when something explodes in the movies a massive sound effect is played for maximum effect. However this sound is simply not true in any way, sound cannot travel in space because of the lack of air and vibrating molecules. If sound could exist in space in theory we would constantly hear all the sounds of the universe, the sun alone would make constant massive thermonuclear explosion sounds! Movies add sound to make a better impact on screen, only movies like Stanley Kubricks 2001 have got this right so far!

2. Laser Beams are visible

Sci-Fi movies feature laser beams (usually in the form of weapons) all the time, we are even close to having laser weapons on our earth battlefields. However most people wouldn’t know that they are nothing like they are on the screen, a laser beam is a burst of concentrated energy which in reality would be completely invisible in space as there isn’t any particles around the beam to scatter light.

3. Black Holes suck everything in

In many movies black holes suck in and consume everything, anything inside them can never escape. Most of us believe this and see them as vortices of utter doom, but if you read even the basic description of black holes you would learn that their pull is only proportional to their mass. In reality, they cannot pull in anything more than their size will allow. It is true that a black hole will consume anything near its event horizon, however it would have little effect on anything outside this radius (which is often quite small).